Microsoft Vancouver is now Black Tusk Studios, working on a Halo-level AAA franchise

Will have hired 110 employees by the end of the year.

Microsoft’s Vancouver studio, Microsoft Game Studios Vancouver, has gone under heavy restructuring- for the better. For one, it’s now called Black Tusk Studios, and the newly rejuvenated development team is hiring people in droves, and will have 110 developers working for it by the time this year ends, which is just a month away now.

The studio, according to its website, “is dedicated to creating immersive AAA games that push the limits of Microsoft’s entertainment platforms.”

“We are working on Microsoft’s next big entertainment franchise” said Crump. “We’re not working on an existing franchise, we’re looking to build the next Halo here in Vancouver, for example, which is really exciting. We are building something from the ground up.”

That is certainly exciting news. Fans have been cribbing that Microsoft doesn’t give new IPs a lot of opportunities, and the few that do get released aren’t for the core audiences, rather for the Kinect crowd. It will be pleasant to see a new IP join the ranks of Halo, Forza and Gears of War (which isn’t really first party or even MS’, but it’s still exclusive.”